He said governing had become more hard as people lost faith in public institutions and tensions among nations spiralled out of control rapidly.
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“Today, a nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself”, Obama said to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
World leaders are grappling with the largest crisis of displaced persons since World War II, more than 65 million people who have fled their homes because of armed conflict or persecution, or because they are seeking asylum or a better way of life.
“The answer can not be a simple rejection of global integration”, Obama said.
“There is a military component to that”, he said, calling the Islamic State terrorist group attacking the Syrian government’s forces a “mindless, medieval menace” worthy of destruction though the group seeks the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad, as Obama does.
KELEMEN: He did. You know, Ban Ki-moon’s tenure ends at the end of this year, and he was not holding back today.
But the speech also comes just weeks before the November elections, when that legacy is on the line.
In his final remarks to the United Nations General Assembly of his presidency, President Barack Obama on Tuesday warned against “strongmen” and authoritarianism and urged acceptance and inclusion across the globe.
Seemingly speaking of the U.S., Obama says there are a lot of nations doing the right thing, but many countries, particularly those blessed with wealth and the benefits of geography can do more to help.
“The United Nations has a moral responsibility for supporting Haiti in overcoming the epidemic and building sound water, sanitation and health systems”, Ban said in statement posted in August on the organization’s website. Citing the pervasive role of money in politics, entrenched party allegiances and a patchwork of voting laws, Obama told the United Nations in NY during his final address that it was up to long-established nations to show the way forward.
“A peaceful resolution of disputes offered by law will mean far greater stability then the militarisation of a few rocks and reefs”, Obama said.
But to illustrate this point, Obama at one point called the more closed-off, authoritarian communist North Korea a “wasteland”, especially in comparison to its southern neighbor, South Korea.
The President concluded his last United Nations address with a fatalistic warning on global politics. “They are more empathetic and compassionate toward their fellow human beings”. “Perhaps that’s our fate”, Obama suggested. He said “in too many places, we see leaders rewriting constitutions, manipulating elections and taking other desperate steps to cling to power”.
“We have to imagine what it would be like for our family, for our children”. He unsurprisingly rejected this idea and said that “history shows that strong men are then left with two paths” permanent crackdown or scapegoating enemies overseas.
Obama missed his turn as the second speaker which promoted President of the General Assembly to call Chad’s leader, who was the next speaker on the list, to make his national statement. Obama called for the global community to integrate globally in terms of migration and economics.
And hanging over the United Nations gathering was a weekend bombing a short subway ride away that New York’s mayor has declared an act of terror.
The president’s speech presented an opportunity to burnish his foreign policy legacy for a final time, while addressing global problems that have dogged his tenure.
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The president did take time to criticize globalism.
